Omni MegaCorporation Heaquarters, London

Neville Burke shuffled the papers on his desk, before placing them in a manila enveloped and filing them away. His thin, gaunt features were drawn even tighter than normal tonight... for he had made a costly decision, one that he had agonized over for many long months. Once upon a time, Omni had been allied with various dark forces, most of which were related to an ancient evil known as the Bane.

Omni's CEO, Francesca Luxley Grace, had become a pawn of the Bane -- and she'd pushed Omni down an ever-darkening road. Toxic waste dumping, trafficking in various illegal animal trades and much more had become part and parcel of how Omni did business. Even after Ms. Grace had a change of heart, the ravenous beast that had become Omni continued on its merry, sadistic way.

"I've had enough of that, thank you very much." Neville rose and crossed the way to his window. It was a beautiful London night, with just enough of a nip in the air to make you feel alive. Neville pushed against the glass, feeling it give way before him. He stood at the precipice, hung between life and death. "Forgive me," he whispered.

Closing his eyes, Neville allowed himself to fall forward...

Into a world far less evil than the one he'd known.

Nathaniel Caine took a drag on his cigarette, trying to ignore the fact that he was soaked to the bone. He held an umbrella over his head, but it was tattered to the point where it afforded little protection for anything but his smoke. "Give me his name again."

"Neville Burke. Age 42. Been employed with Omni for about 15 years, worked his way up from mail room clerk to the bloke with the biggest window office."

"It was the death of him, poor chap." Nathaniel flicked his fag away, letting it fall sizzling into a puddle. He knelt beside the corpse, pulling back the sheet that protected what remained of Neville Burke from the elements. He hadn't fared well in the fall, as his head had split open and forced one of his eyes right out of the socket. The rest of him looked more like a broken marionette than a human being. "I hate this kind of thing, Charlie. I honestly do."

Charlie nodded, pushing his wide-brimmed hat back a bit. He was far rounder than his partner, having never broken himself of a childhood love for sweets. He had a Flake bar in his pocket even now, set aside for an afternoon snack. "You're good at it, mate. The lord Jesus has given you a gift."

Nathaniel looked up into Charlie's open, round face... and he resisted the urge to hurl expletives at his dear friend. Charlie had no idea what Nathaniel's life had been like, ever since the Barrier had gone up. "Gifts" were what many people called their newfound abilities. To Nathaniel, it was a curse of the lowest order. "I don't think Jesus had the least bit to do with any of this, Charlie. I really don't."

Nathaniel had spent the better part of five years with the London police force, most of them patrolling the worst that the city had to offer. Since the Black Mass Barrier had altered him, however, he'd become a much more important 'face' for the department. They wheeled him out for all the big cases now, utilizing his Barrier-induced abilities to solve crimes for the economic elite.

Like Neville Burke.

Nathaniel's fingers came to rest on Neville's cheek. The skin was soft and somewhat rubbery, with a congealed texture that made Nathaniel's stomach churn. He fought the urge to draw away. Contact was necessary.

It came quickly, as always. A sudden rush of coldness, one that sapped away all the heat and life from Nathaniel. He greedily sucked in air, his eyes flashing white and pupil-less as the power overtook him. He was no longer the simple young man from Birmingham, whose drive for success had taken him away from the family's historical vocations in railway travel. 

He was something else.

Something changed; altered.

Images flashed through his mind's eye, bombarding him with little details about the man who lay before him. He saw lost loves, secret shames and the tiny joys that fill the lives of everyone, great or small. He knew Neville Burke in that instant, in an intimate way that he could never express with mere words.

And he saw the horror that had driven the man to take his own life. 

"There's another world," he whispered, and his voice was so filled with dread that Charlie took a step away from him. "Another earth... just like ours. It's being powered by... an angel. Red... Hound... Pain... God, there's so much pain...."

Nathaniel yanked his hand away, just as a hideous image of a flaming bird filled his vision. He saw/felt/heard the fires of creation... and he felt his heart pounding away in his own chest, the moment of pure transcendence almost too much for him.

"You okay, Nat?" Charlie knelt beside his mate, moving a shaking hand towards Nathaniel's shoulder. He never quite made contact, but his voice gave full evidence of his concern. "It was worse this time, wasn't it?"

"It's bloody awful," Nathaniel confirmed. He wrapped his arms about himself, oblivious to all the other officers. His eyes were still wide open and filled with white, tiny bursts of air coming from his mouth as he talked. "I need to see this bloke's office, Charlie. Right now."

Six Years Ago

"The water's awful. Frigid!" Claire ran towards Nathaniel, shaking out her long brown hair before collapsing onto the towel next to him. The weather was nice today, with temperatures soaring into the upper 80s Fahrenheit. It gave Claire a nice excuse to reveal her lithe young figure in the new swimsuit she'd bought last fall -- and Nathaniel was glad of it. She was gorgeous, with her every move sending little tingles of excitement through him.

"Yes... I can see that it's a bit nipply. I mean nippy," he laughed.

"You crass little pervert," Claire replied, though her eyes revealed that she found his teasing to be more flirty than insulting. "You would notice that, wouldn't you? Can't keep your eyes on anything else."

"Not true." He rolled over onto his side, putting one arm around her waist. His somewhat long hair fell into his face, just the way she liked. "I also like your bum."

"Cad."

"You love it."

"I think you're horrid."

They kissed... and for one long, wet moment everything was fine with the world.

And then insanity took over.

The ground shook as an impact rattled all the beachgoers. Nathaniel grabbed Claire and pulled her closer, opening his eyes to see a blue-skinned brute dressed like a schoolboy pulling himself out of a massive hole. "We're in serious trouble, luv," he whispered.

The madman known as Tweedledope glanced around, his eyes twinkling. He caught sight of Nathaniel and Claire, who were nearest to him, and his beefy hand shot out at amazing speed. He gripped Claire about the ankle and hefted her right out of Nathaniel's grasp. "Oi! Oi!" he cackled, his misshapen teeth flashing in the sun.

Nathaniel tried to scream but he found that he produced no sounds. He struggled to his feet, staring mutely at the villain before him. Tweedledope was whipping her about in what would have been a comical fashion, if it hadn't involved the mutilation of the woman he loved. Her head banged against the beach repeatedly, smearing her features in a bloody mess. 

"You murdering scum!" someone yelled from above, drawing the attentions of both Nathaniel and Tweedledope. Nat slumped back to the ground, his eyes wavering back and forth from the brightly clad figure coming from the sky and the disfigured body of his lover. Her hands were twitching, opening and closing spastically. She'd dead, he thought. She has to be. Nobody could live through that.

Captain Britain, massive and brave, rammed straight into the body of his old foe, knocking Claire from his grasp. She landed like a limp little doll, her arms and legs splaying about in an unnatural way. The rich man's hero, Brian Braddock, didn't even bother to check on her before launching into a powerful assault on his opponent. The armored figure delivered a roundhouse right that sent Tweedledope flying into the sea.

Nathaniel crawled towards Claire and brought her into his arms. His tears fell warm and salty against her flesh and he felt the unsettling shift of her bones beneath his hands. She felt... broken.

How long he sat there, holding her against him, he didn't know. He knew she wasn't breathing, knew she was beyond hope... but he couldn't quite bring himself to let her go. The mere act of releasing her seemed too final.

"Mate... I'm sorry I didn't get here sooner."

Nathaniel looked up to see Captain Britain staring down at him. The big man seemed uncertain of how to behave, shifting uneasily from foot to foot. Nathaniel noticed that the hero avoided looking at Claire. "I'm not your mate. Not now. Not ever." He looked up at Brian then, his eyes full of fury. "You just killed me. You sodding bastard. You just killed me."

Today

"He was a clean bloke, you have to give him that." Charlie walked through Neville's office, running a hand over a couple of sculptures. They were expensive and far nicer than anything that a police officer would be able to afford.

"Superficially, I suppose. But he wasn't so clean on the inside." Nathaniel flipped through file folders, scanning the contents of each envelope. Most of them contained invoices or memos, unrelated to the prey that he was truly hoping to find.

"May I ask where in the hell you get off barging in here like this?"

Both men turned to see a woman standing with arms crossed in the doorway to Neville's office. She was an attractive woman in her mid-thirties, with strawberry blonde hair and a trim figure.

"Ms. Sherrilyn McLemore, I presume?" Charlie asked, offering up his brightest smile. He'd seen McLemore on the cover of UK Business and had taken quite a fancy to her. Nathaniel resisted the urge to grin as his friend ran a hand through his sparse head of hair.

If Sherrilyn noticed the adoration in Charlie's eyes, she gave no indication of it. Her icy glare never wavered. "I thought you were here to investigate a suicide, not perform a check on our business records."

"He threw himself out his office window. Makes sense that his death might be related to his business dealings," Nathaniel responded.

"That's fine, Inspector... but I would have liked to have known you were coming here. Many of the files here are private, with information related to our many contacts and consumers."

Nathaniel sighed, resisting the urge to lash out at her. Following a communion with the dead, he frequently felt lethargic and short-tempered. "Mr. Burke had no family to speak of... Did he ever mention to anyone here that he was feeling stressed? Suicidal?"

"Mr. Burke kept his personal affairs to himself. As do we all. Omni prides itself on maintaining a business-like atmosphere at all times."

Nathaniel nodded, casting his eyes about the office. The images he'd gotten from Neville had been so profound that he'd had trouble making sense of them all. Some of them, in fact, seemed more like fantasy than reality. Another world... a woman in torment... it was like a sick work of fiction. But Neville had believed them.

And so did Nathaniel.

"I understand that," he said, "but surely someone would have noticed if he'd been under the weather? Was he working on any stressful accounts, for instance?"

"We're a multi-billion dollar company, one whose worth and importance has only increased with the Barrier in place. Because of our old connections, we were best able to incorporate mysticism into our daily business practices."

"Old connections... That's right," Nathaniel said, snapping his fingers as if the pieces were falling into place. Beside him, Charlie watched in admiration. He loved watching Nat work. "You people were tied in with that whole Mys-Tech group, weren't you? Nasty bit of business, that."

McLemore's eyes hardened even more. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave, Mr. Caine. I'm not certain I appreciate the insinuations you're making."

"I didn't realize I'd insinuated anything... I was just wondering aloud. Do you think that black magic could have played a part in Mr. Burke's demise?"

"Don't be daft."

"Don't be evasive."

Charlie cleared his throat, stepping between the two of them. "Perhaps we best be off for now, Nat. We can always come back later on."

"You're right, of course." Nat flashed a cold smile at McLemore. "I trust you'll be available later on?"

"I don't plan to leave London, if that's what you're worried about, Mr. Caine."

"Good show." Nathaniel stepped out of the office, Charlie at his right. Lowering his voice, he said "I got what we needed... Her mind was like a steel trap, though. I barely managed to grab the bit of info I was looking for."

"And that was?"

Nathaniel smiled at his friend. "Sorry, mate. I sometimes forget you don't see these things with me... Like I told you before, I saw images of another world... and a girl, trapped. I wanted to know where those things were -- and I know now. Fancy taking a trip with me?"

"Will I be home in time for Coronation Street?"

"Not even a concern. And I'll buy you a pint for coming along."

"You're a good man, Nathaniel. The very best!"

"There's something happening... Do you feel it?"

"Someone's looking for answers."

"Damn that Burke! We never should have trusted him!"

"We had to replenish the ranks... Ever since that bit of business with Haldane, we've been whittling our numbers down and more. It couldn't have been foreseen that he would snap."

"He was weak! I told you that!"

"Hush. What's done is done. The only thing to do now is prepare ourselves -- we'll have new arrivals soon. Let's make sure they're properly welcomed, shall we?"

"I don't like the looks of this, Nat... think we should wait for some back-up?"

Nathaniel glanced over at his partner, who was staring at the dockyard warehouse with something akin to fear. There was definitely a foreboding air all about the place, making one feel as if they were alone in a graveyard after dark. "Don't go losing the plot, Charlie -- things are moving fine so far." He tried the door, not being surprised when he'd found it locked. Casting a look about, he noticed that there were no cars parked nearby. From all appearances, no one had come here for quite a long time. "But Neville was here, weren't you, old boy?" he said to himself. 

Charlie watched Nathaniel raise both hands in the air, making some kind of arcane symbol with his fingers. "What are you doing now?"

"Opening the door." 

Green-tinted energy swirled about Nathaniel's fingers, forcing open the lock. It burst apart, sending tiny metal shards flying. 

"Is there nothing you can't do?" Charlie asked. "You should be a bloody Pendragon!"

"Bollocks... Those aren't real heroes, Charlie. They just like to play dress up and get their faces on the telly."

"Right-o," his friend said, knowing full well that his friend didn't care much for the public's heroes.

Together, they stepped into the warehouse -- and Charlie gasped under his breath, while Nathaniel felt a strange sort of disconnection from reality. It was here... the strange images he'd seen in Neville's mind, all arranged before him.

There was a globe, hanging near the high ceiling... it was a miniature version of Earth, spinning slowly. There was a strange bit of shading surrounding most of Europe -- the Barrier, Nathaniel realized. It's a copy of the Earth... but not quite exact, is it? Neville knew that -- and it terrified him.

Below the Un-Earth was a corridor of pure psionic energy. It crackled and writhed like a living thing, forming an ever-shifting chain from the false Earth to the woman who lay below, strapped in some sort of semi-embryonic tank. Her naked form was jerking about in the tank, pressing against the thin layer that held her fast. Nathaniel could make out little about her features, but he thought he saw flashes of Caucasian skin and fiery red hair. 

"We need to get someone out here, Nat... This is way beyond us."

"We can't leave her in there... She's in pain. Can't you feel it?"

Charlie didn't answer, but he knew it was true. There was an almost palpable sense of pain here. It was that pain that had caused the sense of unease they'd felt outside... but here it was so much stronger. The psychic anguish was so powerful that Charlie felt himself begin to break down. "Help her, then. But make it quick!"

Nathaniel stepped forward... and he released the energy building within him. It was answering the woman's, responding to a call that only he could hear. It was primal and pure and sexual and full of need. He felt his clothes burn away, to reveal the dark green bodysuit that appeared whenever his powers were at their fullest. He hated it, didn't understand why it was even there -- but he knew somehow that it had a purpose, as all things did. Magical energy cascaded from Nathaniel Caine's body, altering and changing all things around him.

Charlie felt its touch and was glad, for he felt warm and protected.

The Un-Earth rippled and spun faster, its masters -- so far away -- feeling and knowing all that occurred.

And the girl felt the releasing of tension, leaving her bereft of agony for the first time in far too long.

The energy corridor shattered apart, leaving the Un-Earth floating without a tether to the real world. The tank holding the red-haired woman split open at the same time, letting her tumble forth into Nathaniel's waiting arms. He held her tightly, acutely aware of her scent and the softness of her damp skin. Since Claire's death, he'd avoided woman, as if afraid that loving another would make him forget her. This contact was electric, however....

All around the two interlocking forms, energy began to swirl out of control. Charlie yelled something but Nathaniel couldn't hear him over the sudden onslaught of sound that now surrounded them. Nat was too intent on staring into the eyes of the woman he held, as she gazed back at him. She seemed confused and somewhat lost, but there was an intensity to her gaze that made him realize that she was no fair maiden, waiting to be rescued. This was a warrior....

"My name's Rachel," she said, but her mouth never moved. "Summers...."

"You're absolutely gorgeous," he replied, in the same manner. "No matter what your name is."

Their minds then opened to one another, in a kiss that was deeply personal.

They never noticed that the world around them had begun to shift and alter, as they were pulled from one Earth to another....

Next Issue: Nathaniel and Rachel find themselves on Un-Earth, where history has been re-written to suit the whims of its rulers. 

Author's Notes

Catalyst is a character I created way back in 1985 and is one of the few childhood heroes of mine to survive in one form or another. He's had a variety of different origins (and even played a part in my MV1 fanfic series, The Seekers) but this one will hopefully stick as my final word on the character. 

Rachel Summers is one of my favorite characters from the X-Universe and I have high hopes for how her role here will play out. Yes, I'm sure she'll be very interested to learn of Jean Grey's death and Molly Fitzgerald's ascension as the Phoenix. That will come later, though. This storyline will mainly focus on some of the 'hidden truths' about the Pendragons Universe. Think of it as X-Files meets the Pendragons.

Barry